2018 ANNUAL REPORT Reimagining higher education in Africa The Need for a Different Higher Education Model in Africa Less than 10% of African youth attend university. By definition this group will lead Africa, and the manner in which we educate them today will make all the difference for the continent's future. Ashesi University Foundation is a US 501 (c)3 non-profit organization that supports Ashesi University, a private, independent, non-profit, 4-year university in Ghana. 1 Letter from the President Dear Friends, It is a privilege for me to share what we accomplished together in 2018. The Ashesi community marked several major milestones: we became the youngest university in Ghana's history to receive a presidential charter, which gave us greater independence and flexibility as a degree-granting institution [p.3]; our student body surpassed 1,000 members [p.4]; and we completed five new campus buildings, which offer impactful new spaces for research, collaboration, and engagement [p.5]. Today, there is nothing more urgent than the work we're doing to reimagine higher education in Africa. As I reflect on Ashesi's 17-year journey, I’ve learned that pioneering institutions like Ashesi play a key role in raising the bar in higher education. Consider, as an analogy, a race car team. Two forces affect a car's speed: drag and draft. Drag is air resistance that pushes against a car's forward motion. A car moving ahead in a race works harder to maintain its speed. In contrast, drafting occurs when cars collaborate and race as a pack, leveraging their collective weight to beat drag and collectively race faster. But even within the pack, certain cars must be willing to stay ahead, making it easier for others behind them to move at speed. Like a lead race car, Ashesi and institutions like ours take on the drag that comes with pioneering unique models. By doing so we inspire new institutions of higher education and serve as an example for existing institutions to rethink their models. Now, as we organize collaborations with higher education institutions across Africa, we are leveraging our collective strength. The Education Collaborative at Ashesi, launched in 2017, convenes African universities to learn, innovate, co-create, and share new techniques in university teaching and management [p.12]. Our students, alumni, and faculty are also pushing the envelope in Africa. Jennipher Panashe '19 is building a company to transform plastic waste into a readily available product for building roads [p.8]. Kabiru Seidu ’14's startup received $98,000 from UNICEF to bring virtual reality technology to Ghana's classrooms [p.11]. And Adjunct Lecturer Jewel Thompson is leading the Ashesi Venture Incubator (AVI), a new values-driven venture incubator, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) D-Lab [p.10]. Your support and advocacy helps make all this possible. Your generosity empowers our university and your compassion enriches students' and graduates' lives. Thank you. I hope that you enjoy reading about Ashesi's achievements in 2018 and continue to be a member of our ever-expanding global community of supporters and friends. Sincerely, Discover more online The stories you’ll read in this report are just Patrick Awuah some of the highlights from 2018. For more President, Ashesi University Foundation and Ashesi University inspiring stories of university and graduate accomplishments, visit ashesi.org. 2 2018 at a Glance presidential charter awarded of graduates secured applications received of students 1 to Ashesi University 96% quality placement 1,488 to study at Ashesi 47% are women New private universities in Ghana are Nearly all of Ashesi's most recent As Ashesi's reputation as a leader in We are committed to gender equity, supervised by a public university until grads began careers, entered African higher education grows, nearly and actively recruit women from across they receive a charter granting them graduate school, or started 1,500 students applied for admission, Africa. 40% of engineering students independence. Ashesi is the youngest businesses within six months of an increase of 20% over 2017 and an are women, and our goal is to reach university in Ghana’s history to receive starting their career search. all-time high. gender parity in the program. its charter, a testament to our impact on higher education in Africa. African countries of Ashesi interns received social honor code approved green entrepreneurs 20+ represented on campus 99% excellent feedback 1 by community referendum 32 mitigating climate change Ashesi prides itself on being a pan- Virtually all supervisors are impressed Supported by 91% of voters, the code The Ghana Climate Innovation African university: 17% of students by the performance of Ashesi interns. challenges all members of the Ashesi Center (GCIC) at Ashesi inducted its come from outside of Ghana, and over More than half of students completed community to hold one another third cohort of green entrepreneurs 20 African countries are represented a summer internship in 2018. responsible for doing the right thing committed to developing solutions by students on campus. on and off campus. for climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana. 3 A Milestone 16 Years in the Making 1,013 students Ashesi University has come an extraordinarily long way since 2002, when we opened our doors to a pioneer class of 30 students in rented buildings in Labone, Ghana. 638 Thanks to the support of donors and advocates, we passed a major 486 milestone in 2018: our student body surpassed 1,000 members! 312 Now we are working to extend the Ashesi education to more young 30 Africans. To support our next stage of growth to 1,200 students, we are raising funds for scholarships and for more spaces for students to live, learn, and collaborate [p. 16]. We invite you to partner with 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 us to help us include more of Africa’s brightest students. 4 6 13 12 7 11 8 10 9 1 14 A Setting for Excellence: Ashesi's Growing Campus Thanks to the help of generous donors, five new buildings were completed on campus in 2018. The student center, dubbed The Hive, as well as an athletic facility and sports field offer new spaces for community engagement and leisure. A new 96-bed student dormitory enabled a record 77% of freshman to live on campus, while the Research & Learning Lab and the Fab Lab provide additional classrooms, labs, maker spaces, and office space. 5 5 3 4 Research & Learning Lab 2 Athletic Facility and Sports Field The Hive 1. Academic Halls & Offices (2011) 8. Robert E. & Dorothy J. King 2. Student Dormitories (2011) Engineering Building (2015) 3. Wangari Maathai Hall (2015) 9. Fab Lab (2018) 4. Dormitory 2B (2017) 10. Natembea Health Center (2016) 5. Dormitory 2C (2018) 11. Engineering Workshop (2016) 6. The Hive (2018) 12. Climate Innovation Center (2017) 7. Research & Learning Lab (2018) 13. Athletic Facility and Sports Field (2018) 14. Visiting Faculty Housing (2016) 6 A Goal for Scholarships: $10m in New Funds 52% 48% Ashesi’s student body is growing, and our commitment to scholarships remains as strong as ever. To ensure that students of all backgrounds of scholarship recipients of students received remain able to access an Ashesi education, we have set the ambitious are women scholarships in 2018 goal of raising $10m for our scholarship fund and endowed scholarships. Gifts of all sizes to the scholarship fund are pooled together and 100% of the funds go directly to the university. Endowed scholarships are a way to strengthen the scholarship 28% 100% program in perpetuity and make a long-term investment in Ashesi of students received students. See ashesi.org/blog/scholarships for more information. of scholarship donations full support for room, go directly to funding students board, and tuition 7 Building the Future: Student Develops Roads from Recycled Plastic The majority of the world's plastic ends up in landfills, incinerators, or as harmful litter. What if that waste could instead be used to build roads? Scholarship student Jennipher Alista Panashe '19 is working to do just that. Having started a new venture, Colorful Plastics, Jennipher plans to construct plastic roads in Ghana using waste from major landfills. "The idea for this project came to me through the Leadership for Engineers course, where we were tasked to find a problem in our community and come up with a solution to it," Jennipher shares. "The support network at Ashesi to help entrepreneurial ventures has helped my idea to come to life. Through the help of the Ghana Climate Innovation Center (GCIC) and the Ashesi Start-up Lab (ASL), I will be able to turn my idea to impact." Jennipher is focused on producing eco-friendly, long-lasting roads that meet the needs of Africa's varied environments, while also developing a systematic, cost-effective process for constructing her innovative roads. "I am turning my passion into a business that is meeting the needs of the people around me. I refer to my business as a colorful plastic victory against the rampant plastic pollution problems we have in Africa," she says. "My plan is to scale up the project to the whole of Africa once the business model is clear. The main reason I chose this path of entrepreneurship is the passionate desire I have for a clean and sustainable environment. Since childhood, I have always had a keen interest in nature. I feel very intensely connected to the trees, rivers, and the earth around us. This inner drive causes me to spend my time learning about issues facing nature and coming up with ways to protect and conserve it.